Abbreviations

Acknowledgments

Introduction

“Quite away from all my people”: Arriving in the Spallumcheen Valley

“The real, the useful, the necessary – these occupy one here”: Life in the Spallumcheen Valley

“A very cosy, happy home”: At Home in Vernon

“How many people I have got to know!”: Vernon Friends and Acquaintances

“Oh! I do hope I’ll be able to do something useful and good”: A One-Woman Social Welfare Service

“A great many people have ailments here”: Health and Social Issues in the 1890s 

“How I love them all”: Some Members of the Barrett Family 

“Oh! I wish I could hear someone who would stir me up”: Religion in the West 

“A man of Mr. Parke’s ability”: A Husband of Unusual Accomplishment 

“I have been as busy as I could be”: Life at the BX Ranch and Encounters with the Chinese 

“There is much of the untamed animal nature in me”: Confessions to the Diaries 

“The women work much harder than the men”: Attitudes towards Other Races 

“Hob-nobbing with a Countess”: Early Feminism in Western Canada 

“I think if I were a man I’d want to go in for [politics]”: Political Life at the End of the 1800s 

“People really seem to be getting sanguine over the mining prospects around here”: Exploration and Prospecting in the Okanagan 

“It really is shameful the way I neglect my poor old diary lately”: The End of the Journals 

“I wonder when I’m a grey haired old woman if I will enjoy reading these papers!”: The Final Years

Notes

Appendix: Chronology of the diaries

Bibliography

Index